


Gangsta

by hosiexa



Series: (G)I-DLE - linked Charlie's Angels universe [3]
Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE
Genre: F/F, agent!soojin, charliesangels!au, hacker!shuhua, rated mature only for the violence (and it's not even that bad), sequel to explain how they met and why soojin owes nicha a big favor, sooshu - Freeform, stripper!soojin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:40:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29280855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hosiexa/pseuds/hosiexa
Summary: Yeh Shuhua is finishing her last year of high school when Seo Soojin gets in her life and messes it all up.Then, she gives her a home — someone to belong to.
Relationships: Seo Soojin/Yeh Shuhua
Series: (G)I-DLE - linked Charlie's Angels universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893118
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	Gangsta

**Author's Note:**

> suuuuuupppppp!!! yes, the sequel is finally here, as i said it would be dfgjukidfg a bit late, ik! but i had a few projects to finish in portuguese so, ye, this is it. cgjlfghi anyways, here i am with the story that explains exactly how soojin and shuhua got together
> 
> for those who do not follow me on twitter (hosieonthejelly), let me sum it all up: this is a series where our girls are secret agents.
> 
> the idea of this series is pretty simple: gidle, but in charlies angels (the new movie) universe, or something related to it. there will be three initial stories (the yuyeon one is already out), each one telling the history of each couple (the sooshu one, as you all can see, i had to separate into two different stories cuz in one of them, that is already out and it's called mayores, i introduced soojin to the major problem, and later she will bring shuhua into it as well... in THIS ONE, i'll show you guys how sooshu met and ended up married), and then there will be a short fic bringing all of them together in only one mission.
> 
> alert: you might see some original characters and some other idols even. if they are here, its because I like them or because I have nothing against them, so please don't get me wrong.
> 
> PS: if you read "midzy", here in this universe it means bosley, that is like a superior agent.
> 
> rated mature only for the violence (and it's not even that bad) dfghkil
> 
> (yes, the story title and the chapters title come from kehlani's song, gangsta)
> 
> btw, this was supposed to be a one chapter thing, but i got excited and wrote too many words, so its gonna come in two chaps, sorr guys dfgjkfghj and i'll post the other one only tomorrow cuz its rlly late for me and i have class in a few hours sooooooo
> 
> have a good reading!

**October 4 — San Diego, United States**

It all starts in a Math class, when Mr. Brown, the teacher — a man in his forties with a protruding and almost bald belly who walks around always in the same striped shirt and wears ugly glasses —, enters the room accompanied by a girl Shuhua has never seen in her life.

Okay, she doesn't know many people, no matter how long she has been at the same school for years, and there are many new students entering this year, but she is really sure that the girl is new because, look at her! She has to be from another world. Shuhua's eyes even shine as she watches, conquered, bewitched, writing down all the details in her memory to project her into her dreams tonight.

Her heart is drunk with love.

Seo Soojin; the man presents, the student transferred from New Jersey in the middle of the first term to finish the third year. She has long dark hair and bangs, and her clothes are as normal as those of other classmates, but they look a thousand times better; she wears jeans, a blouse and a jacket because winter is approaching.

Mr. Brown says that she can choose where she wants to sit, but that whatever seat she chooses, it will be her place for the rest of the year. There are only two seats available and one of them is up front, between the nerds and the cheerleaders, and the other is back there, close to Shuhua. Shuhua doesn't think the new girl will choose to sit among the beasts, but she finds herself wrong as soon as Soojin takes the chair next to Freddie Lumps, showing how bold and fearless she can be.

New students never get chances like that.

As the class passes and the hands of the ceramic clock hanging over the blackboard make noise when moving, all that the poor Shuhua can concentrate on, instead of writing down the mathematical formulas that the teacher writes on the board that will serve for the next test, is in the beauty of Soojin, who does not move her head to look sideways even once; how fluffy her hair looks, how her skin might smell, how soft her lips must be...

But pretty girls are more important than Math, right? And interesting, too.

When the lunch bell rings, Shuhua tries to hurry to pack up and reach Soojin, to introduce herself and maybe get her number, but the confusion inside the classroom is too much and she loses her before reaching the hall, seeing just the young girl's dark hair swaying from afar as she walks her confident arms away.

However, there are side effects on Shuhua now, left by the pretty girl. Her stomach is churning inside her belly and it is not from hunger, her blood feels like fever under her skin and there is a sequence of tun-tun happening inside her chest that is too intense. She is ill, and the diagnosis is love at first sight.

+++

**November 11 — San Diego, United States**

Today is Thursday and it two in the afternoon, which means that the Physical Education for class B is about to start. It will take place in the school pool because the teachers of P.E. organized the rotation of activities themselves and Ms. Clark has an explicit preference for Swimming. The woman doesn't even bother to try to hide it.

Shuhua is late thanks to all the lunch break time she spent in the library, doing some illegal last-minute activities on the school computer for the boys in class A. They had overpaid for the service to go faster, so nothing was fairer.

When she reaches the locker room, she finds empty benches and closed cabinets, only silence filling the room, and changes right there, putting on the standard blue swimsuit and the plastic hair cap, taking almost five minutes just to put all her hair on in there. Then, she puts her clothes in her locker and squeezes her diving goggles in her hands, turning to the door that leads to the pool.

However, just before touching the doorknob, she hears something falling on the floor and looks for the source of the noise through the rows of metal cabinets. It's Soojin, sitting on the floor with a notebook against her legs and a pencil in her hand, her back is against the wall of cupboards and her knees are bent. She is still in her normal clothes and her hair is tied up at the nape of her neck.

"You're not coming to class?" Shuhua asks shyly.

The young girl raises her head to look at her and, although her tone is naturally low, her words echo through space. "I didn't know that we would have Swimming in Physical Education."

"Oh... So you don't have a bathing suit?" Before Soojin even responds, she jumps in excitement. "I have an extra one!"

"I don't think it is-"

"Here!" Shuhua, astonished, acts quickly to open her bankroll and find what she wants, offering it to Soojin. "I think it will serve you, JinJin," she blushes when she realizes that the nickname has escaped her mouth. "Uh... I mean- Can I call you JinJin?"

Soojin does not answer, but puts her things in her backpack and brings the object with her when she gets up, looking at the hand held out before picking up the fabric.

"What's your name?" She asks.

"Shuhua, Yeh Shuhua."

"Thank you, Shuhua. I owe you this one."

The passionate face of the Taiwanese takes control of her face again and she stares at Soojin with her bright eyes until the oldest is out of her sight. Soojin herself, inert to this emotional attitude, still too lazy for actually having to do anything in this class, is surprised to see Shuhua waiting for her at the locker room door.

They walk together to the pool.

+++

**December 16 — San Diego, United States**

They are in trouble, in serious trouble. And it's all Shuhua's fault, that's what the girl thinks.

She started off on an extremely hopeful Monday, jumping excited leaps to school when Jack Millington, a classmate for whom she's been doing some favors, shouted her name and leaned her against the wall, asking her aggressive questions and behaving in a way she has never seen before.

His eyes were red and the veins in his footballer hands seemed to want to explode. He was clearly stoned on some kind of mix of illegal drugs, because there is no chance that pure marijuana caused it.

As she knows that no one can argue with someone in that state, she tried to leave and, when she saw that there was no way out, she even tried to explain a thing or two, but that only hardened him further and he advanced on top of her unprotected body.

She raised her hands to cover her face and closed her eyes, waiting for the punch, but it never came, not to her, thanks to Soojin, who appeared out of nowhere and pushed him away. Shuhua opened her eyes in time to see the new girl punch that huge, muscular monster in the face, making him fall to the ground in a daze.

How the hell she did it being so skinny and small compared to him, is still a big mystery.

But the bad part is that Principal Johnson arrived and started yelling at them, sending the three of them to his office and suspending Jack for two whole weeks as soon as he realized his state of mind, even though he is one of the main players on the football school team and the second game of the year coming soon — if his parents were to talk to the Principal, of course, things could change.

As for Soojin and Shuhua... He sentenced them to detention for the rest of the week, which is why they are in the old Music Club room now, in the forgotten underground floor of the second building, barred from going home after a full day of classes.

The youngest is squeezed into a chair, completely bored, with one foot on the seat and her backpack lying on the floor, and she doodles something or other without much desire — what is that? A bunny? A hare? If she looked from the right angle, even a bear it could be.

"Sorry to get you in trouble, JinJin," she murmurs when the weight of guilt becomes too heavy on her shoulders.

Soojin, sitting in perfect posture, takes her attention off her nails and raises her head to look at her. "Why did he want to hit you?"

"I read something I shouldn't have and he got angry," she shrugs as if it's nothing. "Thank you for defending me, it was a nice punch."

"I owed you one."

"Do you do boxing or something?"

"I took a lot of self-defense classes when I was still at the gym," if it seems like an automatic response, it is because it is, so much that Soojin is tired of giving the same explanation, but Shuhua doesn't pay attention to it.

She nods slowly and tries not to think about Soojin wearing gym clothes. Her face ends up red anyway.

"Get up," the older one asks, already standing up. Shuhua frowns and tries to understand the purpose of that, but Soojin still doesn't explain it and beckons her to hurry up. "Come on, Shuhua."

"JinJin, we can't leave yet," although she says it, she still gets up.

"I know. Help me move the chairs away."

Shu doesn't get why they're doing that, but she does as requested and drags all the chairs in front of her to the wall, creating an organized rectangular heap of iron and wood, the middle of the room completely free. Then, she turns to her company and finds her in a curious position, with her feet apart and her posture straight. She supposes that she must imitate her.

"Are you going to teach me how to fight?"

"I'll teach you how to defend yourself," Soojin corrects, making Shuhua smile like a fool. "I won't always be around, the principal even less. You have to at least know how to make him dizzy enough to get out."

"Got it."

"Follow my instructions, okay?"

And so she does it.

+++

**January 29 — San Diego, United States**

Seo Soojin is at Kiss Later, a nightclub frequented by middle-aged men and teenagers with money to toast, which, despite not giving her the best salary in the world, guarantees tips that do the rest, especially on nights when not only she serves drinks wearing short uniforms that expose her body too much, but she also dances.

That is what happens today.

A sexy, shiny top is over her breasts and short black shorts cover her hips. There is a fine choker around her neck and her heels are so high that they add an extra ten centimeters to her height.

She occupies the center of the stage. Two more dancers are behind her, one on the right and one on the left, both using metal bars to seduce customers, just like Soojin, while _The Plan,_ by DaniLeigh, serves as background music. But none of them, nor any of the other girls who exchange the guys' drinks at the tables, are like the new girl in town.

No; Soojin is very natural in her movements, very smooth and sensual. She conquers her victims with her killer looks and lures them into her nest of temptation, manipulating them as she wants and making them beg for a moment of privacy with her, something she would never give while she still has the choice to.

She's a waitress and a dancer, and that's it.

When her show is over, there are screams and requests and dirty words threw against her, and the whole audience is covered by the black of the lack of light until the DJ returns the brown lighting to the venue. Seconds before she leaves the stage, she sees a face pale and delighted near the bar, which belongs to a girl explicitly _not_ dressed for a place like that and who claps and claps frantically holding an impressed smile and dilated pupils.

Seo Soojin doesn't like it.

She hurries and dodges everyone who calls her work name out to grab Shuhua's wrist and drag her to the corner near the bathroom, where the light is red and there is no one to hear them.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Her teeth grind.

"I came to see you," Shuhua's eyes are confused by having Soojin's arm squeeze her against the wall as if she had done something wrong, but soon the memory of the girl dancing returns to her mind and she smiles. "You were beautiful up there, JinJin!"

Soojin grunts, thinking how wrong it can all go if something unplanned happens. And she cannot let it come to that.

"Listen well, Shuhua. Don't you dare to talk about what you saw today, understood? Not to a soul."

Shuhua frowns. "Why would I? The troglodytes here watching you dance are enough, let's leave those from school as far away as possible!"

Her voice tone — a mixture of jealousy and childishness — tells Soojin that she's not hiding anything, that she doesn't know what's going on there, or what the situation is about, which is why the dancer removes the grip and lets Shuhua fix the wrinkled shirt, recognizing her actions as the most innocent and ignorant (due to the lack of knowledge) possible.

"How did you even find me?" She asks.

"You forgot this in the living room," the youngest takes something out of her pocket and offers it to Soojin. It is a gray pendrive. "Actually, it fell out of your bag in the hall and James Tucker took it, but I managed to get him to give it to me with a favor or two. Don't worry, I didn't look at what it has or anything like that."

If the face of the new girl in the city is stunned, it is because it is true. She ignores the fact that her question wasn't really answered because she didn't even know how the pendrive had gotten out of her backpack and, _oh_ , she was in _such_ bad sheets for having lost it. Her boss would kill her if she knew about it, but now that Shuhua has found it and returned it to her, she is in debt.

(She always seems to owe one to this sweet classmate.)

"Shuhua..." She murmurs, her voice exposing how grateful she is, before taking the gray object and crushing it in her hand. "Thank you."

Shuhua blushes and smiles,kind of not knowing what to do and kind of panicking because she is still too close to her crush. Like, so close that she can even smell the sweet scent of her perfume running down her sweat, thanks to all the exercise she did on stage.

It is Soojin who takes action, though, clearing her throat when she notices her own discomfort.

"Do you want to, hm," her eyes roam over everything in front of her. She has never done this before, but she shuts up the voices in her head that tell her to be quiet. "Are you hungry?"

"Always!" Shuhua jumps, her pupils dilating when she realizes the context of the question. "Are you going to buy me food, JinJin?"

"There's a small restaurant not far from here and I think you'll like the seaweed soup."

"I love seaweed soup! I mean, I never tried it, but I love all kinds of food!"

And this is how they have their first date — which Soojin doesn't know is a date, but Shuhua refuses to call it anything else, even if she doesn't say it out loud.

+++

**February 21st — San Diego, United States**

"JinJin, look!" Shuhua screams, a childlike smile on her lips. "I'm giving her food!"

When the older one looks, she forces herself to keep the smile to herself at the sight of Shuhua interacting with one of the giraffes that surround them, and remembers her responsibilities.

"We should be making a note of things, Shuhua," she says.

They are at the San Diego Zoo, on a tour guided by a local employee and supervised by the Biology professor, Miss Hansen. It is almost like a safari, students walk around the reservation in the small orange bus, while the guide shouts things through the megaphone and the teacher tries to hide in her seat, her black hat covering her sleeping face that leans over the window.

On the other side of the vehicle, Shuhua is having the time of her life. To begin with, Soojin agreed to be her partner for the whole day — which is not surprising because they are doing a lot of things together now, like sharing the lunch table every day in the school cafeteria, walking down the halls for the next class, since they have the same schedule, and walk to and from school to the bus stop because their routes are similar.

The Taiwanese girl never returned to the Kiss Later bar at Soojin's request, but they go out to eat (Soojin pays for it) every Sunday.

On second place, Shuhua _loves_ giraffes. And she has never been to the zoo before because the tickets are too expensive, so she is enjoying everything she can before it runs out. Feeding animals when they allow it, taking thousands of photos with the cheap camera she bought in the hand of boy from junior year, ignoring everything that Jofrey, the guide, says...

"We can live first and _then_ write about it," she argues.

Soojin rolls her eyes and remains quiet, with her arms crossed as she watches things around her and dies of heat from the winter sky sun (basically, a miracle) that hits her skin — she is used to much lower temperatures. Her notes paper is empty, but her brain, like an instinctive action, memorizes Jofrey's speech, although she is going to put some things wrong on purpose because she doesn't want to call attention for having high grades.

In her (real) high school years, her grades were nothing exceptional, but now that she has a much greater general knowledge and has gone through the same student undercover thing a few times, there are things and answers and even numbers that are stuck in her mind like notebook stickers. 

"Take a picture with me, JinJin?"

The dancer turns to find Shuhua with a hopeful look and a camera being crushed in her hands. She would like to do that, but she really can't have any image of her running digitally.

"I don't like pictures," is what she gives as an excuse.

"Please!" She is forced to stiffen her expression at Shuhua's insistence, but Shuhua knows better than to annoy the girl she is falling for, so she offers the camera to Soojin and waves her arm like a stubborn child. "It's fine... Can you take a picture of me then?"

After sighing, Soojin nods and picks up the device, adjusting it in her hand and looking for a good angle to position herself.

"Where do you want to pose?" She asks.

Shuhua moves her arms around her body and gets closer to the animal that is still chewing next to her. "Right here, come on."

"With the giraffe?" Her eyebrows lift.

"Yeah, with the giraffe, why. That's thewhole point!"

They take several photos (Shuhua kissing the giraffe's head, Shuhua petting the giraffe, Shuhua doing a funny pose next to the giraffe, Shuhua giving the giraffe more food like a proud mom who likes to pamper her children) and then Jofrey announces the withdrawal, because they have to hurry to reach the next habitat and meet other animals. So Soojin and Shuhua quiet and sit down by the window, the youngest holding on to the bar for safety while the little bus starts to move.

Soojin seems to be distant — and she really is. Her mind is racing through scenes from her childhood and even silly questions, like what she would be doing now if the Academy hadn't recruited her a few years ago, or what she would be like if she were younger and truly belonged to Shuhua's class, or what kind of life she would have if she decided to change her profession.

It is stupid, she knows it, mainly because she is needed at the Agency, in the world. There are too many bad things happening for her to just sit and act like she doesn't know about them. And when she has had enough of that _imagining_ crap, she gets up and leans over, resting her elbows on the window to receive the breeze not as cold as she expected to hit her body, the warm landscape stretching out in front of her.

Usually, things like that don't bother her, they don't even go through her subconscious, but perhaps it is the familiarity of the case that is making her nostalgic: teenagers making the wrong choices, orphans and illegal activities. She has been through it herself, has done what she shouldn't have, has worked for the wrong people and has been an orphan (she is still, despite, like everyone else, considering the Agency as the Great Mother).

"JinJin?" Shuhua calls out as she gets up, settling next to her partner.

"Hm?"

"Have you thought about who you want to go to the prom with?"

The prom, the event that all high school students are crazy about; the event that makes them save money and buy expensive dresses and rent limos and worry about who will accompany them more than about global warming.

Soojin left school before finishing the last year, and never stayed long enough on her missions to attend one, so she doesn't know what it's like to feel all this euphoria, nor does she think she will ever know.

"I don't know if I'm going to be here for the prom, Shuhua," she reveals.

"What?!" The Taiwanese girl's eyes widen in the same second, her voice coming out higher than usual, a characteristic of her that sometimes, Soojin has to be sincere, it bothers her (although she understands this as a trait of lack of training, lack of contact with real life and its difficulties. "What do you mean?!"

"My family moves a lot."

Her apology sounds empty and vague, but Shuhua nods slowly and a thoughtful expression takes her face for a few seconds, long enough for her to ask another question.

"But if the time comes and you're still around, can you come with me?"

"Of course I _can_ go with you, Shuhua," the prank is explicit on her lips and it makes Shuhua smile.

"Do you _want_ to go to the dance with me, JinJin?" The youngest asks again.

She won't be here for this, she knows she won't, that's why she tells the truth.

"If I'm still here, it will be a pleasure."

+++

**March 5 — San Diego, United States**

They are in the park this time.

It is a Friday morning and Soojin is skipping class because she needed to deliver something in the city post office, so of course that Shuhua, seeing her go the opposite way from the second class of the day, followed her out of school, and both of them are now lying on the green lawn of the public area after having walked almost six kilometers to the south.

There are few people passing by — most of them are elderly kind-looking people walking with their dogs, and Shuhua makes a point of ridiculing herself to all of the cute little animals she sees, but not many of them really pay attention to her — and many pigeons flying around looking for bread crumbs or any other food (by the way, the dancer doesn’t understand why people feed these creatures... They carry diseases and are very inconvenient).

There are also ducks swimming in the small lake next to them and Soojin smiles every time she sees of them with the head stuck in the water, its fat ass turning towards the sun.

The day is cold today, finally a truly Winter day, but the temperature will start to rise up in a few weeks and it is knowing that, that the eldest decided not to go back to school after having completed her daily task, which is making her really calm. All she has to now do is wait for an answer and then prepare to take the next step.

Meanwhile, she enjoys the weather with light shoulders, free of any weight, with Shuhua beside her trying to attract the attention of a stray cat, but the little furry thing doesn't even look at her and ignores all her insistent calls.

Yeh Shuhua is still unknown for her. Every time she thinks the girl is going to do or say something, she does and says the opposite of it. It took Soojin some time to get used to her needy and strident way of being, which is mostly cute, but there are few people like her in the world and the dancer was used to dealing with them (she also tried to find some pattern in her actions, but ended up accepting that Shuhua is just too random for that, and tends to act a lot with her emotions, almost never thinking further).

Oh! (And that's a secret.) Soojin was trained to seduce people, right? To spend time with them and win them over to the point that they do crazy things for her, to lose concentration, to choose wrong, to be careless and leave space for the brunette to do whatever she wants. But Shuhua is different because she fell for her without Soojin having done anything, without having approached her, without trying to seduce her, without having the intention of making her stick to her and follow her everywhere — because of course she is aware of the cliff of feeling that the Taiwanese girl feels for her.

But still, even wearing the simplest clothes next to her, letting herself be the introspective girl she is, walking around without makeup or her hair done, and without trying at all costs to please her, Soojin still got Shuhua's heart , and perhaps it is for this reason, for this curiosity, for this flattery of attracting someone like that, that she lets Shuhua sorround her.

Deeper than that, Soojin even found herself looking at Shuhua in an inappropriate way, which would cause a huge turmoil if someone from the Agency knew that all the training she received, all the instructions on how not to take it personal, not letting herself get hit by something or someone during a mission, is going to waste. Because she bites her lip whenever she sees Shuhua tie her hair, she smiles whenever Shuhua acts like a dork, and feels proud whenever Shuhua shows her the results of her tests, which are higher than average.

She's getting involved and that's so wrong in so many different ways, but how is she supposed to make it stop? (The question is rhetorical because she does know how to make it stop, but she doesn't like the answer and so, for the first time in forever, she ignores it.)

Suddenly, a noise catches herr attention and takes her away from her thoughts. She looks towards the fountain and sees a mobile hot chocolate cart — there are other things too, like pretzels and coffee, but only hot chocolate interests her — and Soojin gently touches Shuhua's arm to make her look at her.

"Are you cold?"

Stopping to assess the sensations her body is feeling, Shuhua pouts. "Kind of. But I don't want to leave now!"

It is not even to avoid the classes they still have, or would have, that she says this, but to prevent Soojin from leaving or something like that. Shuhua is enjoying this quality time.

"I'll be right back," the dancer warns, running her hand over her pants to push the grass away and walks away with Shuhua's curious eyes on her. She goes to the mobile and give her orders to the man, returning to her starting place two minutes later with two styrofoam cups with hot chocolate and a sweet pretzel wrapped in paper (since she's not a fan of it, she just bought it for Shuhua, who's _always_ hungry).

"Thank you, JinJin!" Shuhua says with a big smile before the girl even sits down and offers her her snack. It is a simple but sweet gesture that would win the heart of the youngest completely if it had not already belonged to Soojin since they first saw each other.

"You're welcome, ShuShu."

When Shuhua smiles in delight at the new nickname, barely believing what her ears heard, Soojin smiles back, in a more subdued, simpler way, and quickly turns her gaze to the glass in her hand.

They eat — in Soojin's case, she only drinks — in silence, but they don't go back to school nor leave the park before seven pm.

+++

**April 15 — San Diego, United States**

Shuhua is awakened by a strange noise, as if someone is walking on the roof, just above her head. Then, another noise even closer comes and she decides to do something, sitting on her bed and opening her eyes, scratching them to ward off sleep and to try and distinguish things between the shadows.

There is a figure in her window half kneeling on the balcony, watching her with hair blowing in the wind and with the moonlight as the background, making the sides of her body visible.

"JinJin?" She recognizes, even though Soojin is dressed only in black and that is not her custom. But what the hell is she doing at the window?

"You never told me you live in a community," the other says, still not moving.

In fact, Shuhua said nothing about her home to anyone — although she would have told Soojin about it if they had talked about something as personal as this, but the dancer never started the subject because, if she did, she would have to give the opportunity to Shuhua to ask back, and she doesn't want to lie any more than she needs to —, and even the school doesn't have that data, so she doesn't know how the older girl is there now.

"I didn't want you to know yet," Shuhua lowers her head feeling embarrassed, almost wanting to be swallowed by her own bed.

Soojin finally stretches her legs and enters the room, taking her classmate's eyes away to assess her features as she passes the cold, cracked walls. There are pasted notes and photos of artists and motivational phrases written on colored paper, daily reminders, like a to-do list, and doodles of flowers and trees and people. No sign of family or anyone close to her.

"What happened to your parents?" She asks.

"I don't know, I never met them,"the Taiwanese girl reveals, hugging her own legs on the mattress because she doesn't know what to do. "I was raised by nuns in an orphanage, but they put me out at the end of last year, when I turned eighteen."

The dancer nods, but Shuhua barely sees it because Soojin has her back to her.

Cautiously, Shuhua reaches out to turn on the only lamp in the room and stands up, the yellow light guiding her way, but still not enough to make her able to see small details, not like Soojin, who is used to that.

"How did you find me, JinJin?"

"I put a tracker on your coat in the last time we went out to have dinner," there is no shadow of shame or regret in her voice. But she needed to know more about the girl she was letting herself fall for and she didn't like what she found: _nothing_. "There's no record of you anywhere, Shuhua. Would you mind explaining why?"

The teenager is taken by surprise, but she doesn't want to lie to the girl she likes, the girl who makes her days better, who buys her seaweed soup and takes her out for ice cream or hot chocolate in the park. On the other hand, she never told anyone about that because she never had anyone close enough.

"I deleted everything I had," she finally reveals.

"Why?"

Shuhua shrugs. "If the government doesn't want to tell me who I am, then I won't tell them either."

 _Now_ Soojin gets it. And she can relate — she is an orphan herself.

"Is this about your parents?" She turns to look back at Shuhua. "What do you know about them?"

"Nothing. I was found on the street when I was a baby, the rest is _classified_ information," the way she makes fun of the expression tells Soojin everything she needs to know.

"You hacked government files," the stripper tries, all the information in her brain finally making sense, like a solved puzzle. "You're the hacker."

Yes, she is. Not _the_ hacker because Shuhua has no idea what she is talking about, but she is _a_ hacker, yes, and she's proud of her skills as such. It's the only thing she's really good at in this life, the only thing that saved her when no one offered help.

"I don't do anything too bad. I only break into private systems, but I only did it with the government to get information about me."

Her eyebrow goes up. "And beyond that?"

"Some guys at school pay me to change grades on the school's website and decode e-mails," her rent, though small, won't pay for itself, after all. Same thing for her food. She needs this to survive because no company accepts a young woman without a degree, which she will not have for a long time because she doesn't have the money. "It's nothing super exciting."

She shrugs as if it's nothing and Soojin nods, her mouth opening as if to say something, but saying nothing, a war of rules and principles making her head hurt against her regard for this girl — and maybe something more.

But her duties come first and this situation, this revelation of Shuhua's involvement in her mission and the younger girl's confused past, makes her come back to reality and realize that she has gone too far, farther than she had ever gone before in any other occasion (which is not much).

Telling herself that it's time to block whatever she's feeling, whatever she's been given the privilege to think about, Soojin gives things up and heads back to the balcony.

"JinJin!" Shuhua almost screams, there is agony and doubt in her voice and that makes the dancer stop where she is. "Are we still friends?"

Soojin holds on to the wall to look back, eyes lost, but in mourning for the decision she just made. "I'm also not who I say I am, Shuhua."

And she is gone, disappearing from the window in seconds, merging with the darkness of the night and making it impossible to be found even in the moonlight.

+++

**April 27 — San Diego, United States**

Shuhua has not seen Soojin since the day she appeared in her room in the middle of the night, neither at school nor in the city, and her fragile little heart is sad. Her mind repeats to herself that, if she were a better person, Soojin would have stayed; had she not had such a complicated past (and present!), Soojin would not have abandoned her.

Because this is what happened: Soojin _abandoned_ her. Decided to forget about her existence or something like that, she's sure of it.

And Shuhua is not an idiot. She knows, from all the information that the dancer let out, that she's probably a police officer or something, someone who is working undercover after illegal things, and Shuhua is the definition of someone outside the law. She receives money for services and gives unfair grades to spoiled and wealthy students. She deleted herself from the governmental system. She does dirty things, and that's what is keeping Soojin away.

For the first time, she wants to not have the skills she has. For the first time, she is not proud of her technological knowledge. It's a hell of a burden.

The school day has just ended and there is no one for her to accompany to the bus stop, so Shuhua goes on her normal way back to the building and puts the volume of the music that sounds (it's _Gangsta_ , by Kehlani) through the headphones on maximum, her feet walking lazily across the asphalt.

She is two streets away from her bed, the sun hitting her eyes and making her look at the asphalt, when her body is pulled into a narrow, dark alley and the person who presses her against the wall covers her mouth with their hand, preventing her from screaming for help. But she wouldn't scream because it's Seo Soojin over there (she recognized her by the fragrance of her perfume, even if it's so distant), right in front of her, with her hair all tucked in a dark cap, a cut on her lip and a purple mark up on her cheek.

The rest of her body isn't much better either: only a thin green tank top covers her torso, showing her injured arms, but it doesn't hide her abdomen well enough to prevent Shuhua from seeing the blood on her shirt, her pants full of holes — not the holes that come with the fabric — and her hands are fractured, the smell of gunpowder and earth strong on her skin, and something metallic too.

Soojin, with a tired face and a heavy look, removes her hand from Shuhua's mouth when she is sure that the girl will not scream or rebel.

"JinJin?!" She sounds discredited. "JinJin!" With the older woman's nod, Shuhua throws herself over the injured body and holds it tight, but doesn't squeeze it. Still, Soojin grunts in pain. "Thank God, I thought you moved out without telling me!" _Or worse_ , she wants to add, but doesn't, moving away to look at the dancer's face again. "What's that on your face? JinJin, why are you so hurt?!"

"Slow down, Shuhua. One question at a time, okay?" Soojin's voice sounds lower than normal and a little broken.

"Why did you-"

"Actually," she interrupts, remembering why she came to Shuhua, the only person she thinks she can trust — at least until Midzy arrives. "Do you know any place nearby with a bathroom for me to clean up?"

"But what about your home?" Shuhua frowns.

(As if Soojin had a home... But that's what she told Shuhua, of course, the few times she mentioned having parents and a roof, but she has only been using one of the Agency's safe houses so far.)

"I don't know if it's safe."

Shuhua nods, understanding exactly what she means, and holds her hand to lead the direction. "This way, JinJin."

It is an unusual route they use, between ugly, messy, dark alleys and street sections — only because Shuhua figures that Soojin doesn't want to be exposed, she doesn't want to be seen. And she takes her to her building, an old and small building, that only doesn't fall apart because someone up there doesn't want to, and acts as a guide to the back, an empty and dirty area, but that has a sink with running water and is insulated enough for not a single soul bother them.

"Stay here, JinJin. I'll be right back," the youngest warns, leaving the dancer to go all the way up to her room to get clean clothes and cloths and an aid kit, the only one she has. When she returns, taking care so not even the girls from the community see her, she finds Soojin sitting on a cement bench, her face clearly trying to hide the pain she feels and no cap keeping her hair from falling down her back.

Shuhua puts the folded clothes beside her and asks Soojin to get up, her cheeks flushing when she sees the older woman take off the dirty shirt and leave it on the floor, accepting the wet cloth to pass over her body. She has a cut two inches below her navel, on the right side, which looks like it needs stitches.

"You want help?" Shuhua offers, approaching when seeing Soojin's positive nod.

She takes the wet cloth from her trembling hands and gently passes it over the hurt skin, smoothing it against her shoulders, then over her collarbone, over the advantageous breasts that are covered with the black bra (surprisingly, she doesn't blush), and goes down without haste the damp tissue from her patient's belly. She washes the cloth before cleaning the wound and gives the dancer another one to clean up her arms, while Shuhua sits in front of the stripper and looks for something in the small white and red box. Soojin's body almost collapses when ththe alcohol gushes out of her open cut, burning and disinfecting, the scream being stuck in her throat, but her lips are bruised in the process.

"Sorry," the youngest asks. "I'm going to have to sew it, JinJin, the wound is big... It will hurt some more."

Without even looking back, Soojin mutters something positive, taking the small bottle of alcohol from Shuhua's hand to drink two big sips at once, preparing for the pain that would come.

Shuhua cleans the cut a little more and throws alcohol in her own hands before passing the sterilized needle through the separated skin, joining it, pulling angry and painful grunts from the girl in front of her. There are three long minutes of torture, the thin, sharp object going up and down, and there is almost no alcohol left in the bottle when Shuhua finishes it, putting away what she will no longer use and getting up to look at Soojin, who is flushed from holding her breath, but still carries a dirty face.

Soojin accepts the milled water offered to her and Shuhua uses that time to clean the cloth — which was white, but is now in a mixture of red and black — in running water once more, approaching again only when it is clean enough.

"You're good with these things," Soojin praises softly, taking the care directly in her face, the cloth taking the impurities stuck to her pores and making them clean again.

"The nuns made everyone learn first aid at the orphanage," Shuhua explains, wiping Soojin's palms last, then finally offering her some of her clothes.

She turns to the wall to give the injured girl some privacy — not that Soojin needs it... She has gotten used to people seeing every bare inch of her body — and moves her fingers while she waits.

"Can I ask what happened?" She asks.

Behind Shuhua, Soojin is taking off her pants to put the clean and loose ones. "I don't normally look like that, but seven against one is not very fair."

"Seven?!"

Soojin smirks. "You should see the other guys.

There is another minute or two waiting because the older woman's actions are slow due to the various places on her body that are sore, but she soon clears her throat and Shuhua turns around, finding a Seo Soojin with wet hair and wearing her clothes: her pants sweatshirt, her loose green shirt.

Soojin looks at her with affection, again with that air of someone who is going to say something, but who doesn't say a thing, until she walks towards Shuhua and holds her neck, pulling her into a kiss with a metallic taste of blood that makes the poor Shuhua thinks she died and is in Paradise, the hot tongue of the girl she likes exploring her mouth, devouring her lips; her hands pulling her long hair, telling her how to lean, what angle to stay on.

Until the rhythm of their touch slows down and Soojin's fragile lips are no longer in hers, but her face is still there when Shuhua opens her eyes, so close that their noses are almost touching; the injured girl's hand is no longer in her hair or neck, but on her face, her thumb touching her wet lips.

"Tell me you're not helping mobsters to circulate self-destructive drugs through the city" Soojin asks, her eyes slowly rising from Shuhua's lips to her eyes, making the youngest digest what she just said.

"What?" Shuhua frowns, reality falling on her back like big bags of beans. "JinJin, I don't know what-"

"You told me once that you encrypt emails for someone," she recalls. "I need you to tell me what's in them."

"I-I-" She interrupts herself this time because, sweet heaven, this is so much more complicated than it looks. And it's dangerous, too. And look how much danger Soojin is already in without getting into Shuhua's mess!

"Shuhua, trust me," her voice is firmer this time, more solid and without any ripples.

"I don't want to get you in trouble, JinJin," Shuhua lowers her head, embarrassed.

"I'm not who I say I am," is what Soojin says to try to convince her, another way of saying _hey, it's okay_.

"You already mentioned that once," Shuhua looks up and sighs, pressing her eyes for a few seconds before revealing. "It's just weed. The e-mails I decode come from a weed supplier. You know, for teenagers who aren't old enough to buy it themselves..."

Soojin frowns. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I don't use any of them, but I need the money and they pay well, so..." She shrugs; the girl in front of her nods. But, _wait_ , there's something she forgot, something that earned her a few hours a week, for two straight weeks, locked in a room with Seo Soojin months ago. "Actually, JinJin, I've read something or other about something called LMJ, I think, but it wasn't in any language I know, so I don't know what it is about."

"LMJ? LMJ-20?" Soojin, unlike Shuhua, knows exactly what this is about. "Do you still have the emails on your computer?"

"I do everything through the school system to not give out my IP address, but it's still there."

"Show me."

And so she will.

+++

**May 2 — San Diego, United States**

Shuhua ended up showing Soojin nothing that day because the dancer was too weak, too fragile. If anyone caught them where they shouldn't be, she would have no way of defending herself nor defending the hacker, so it was agreed that the orphan would put all decoded emails in a folder on a pendrive and give it to the older one as soon as she could.

That is why she is there now, at one and twenty-seven in the morning, sitting in front of one of the computers in the school library copying and pasting all the files she sees ahead, all sent by the same sender, who, according to what Soojin has confided, it is not only selling wee, but also a new synthetic drug that affects a person's cognitive system so much that, after a few doses, it starts to break down. And the person won't notice it until it's too late.

The poor Taiwanese girl hates herself for participating in something like that, she can hardly believe that someone wants to harm their own buyers — what could possibly be gained from a mentally damaged teen population?!

She is about to finish when she hears a noise coming from the hall and ends the computer session in time just to bend down and prevent anyone who has entered the library from seeing her. It is full dawn and the school is supposedly closed, so it can't be a good thing. Her hand erases the screen and pulls out the pendrive from the large metal box, unplugging it from the socket just in case her hacker program had not completely closed up. That way, even if the intruders choose to use the computer she used (which is not likely because Shuhua is deep in the space), they will not be able to access her data.

Crawling as quietly as she can, Shuhua slips between two columns full of books and tries to peek through the small free space that the books leave. She recognizes the back of Jack Millington, the boy who tried to hit her a few months ago because she read that message that talked about the new drug, the LMJ thing. He's one of the school's drug dealers, but he's stupid enough to actually consume them, which explains his aggressive outbreak that day, the way his eyes were... It makes perfect sense.

But there are more people there too; some boy she knows is a sophomore and two more who are too old to still attend high school, who wear loose clothes and shiny accessories, guns at their waists. One of them has a bizarre tattoo on his left cheek and the other has a scar on his lips and his face is bruised, even more so than Soojin's a week ago. Perhaps he is one of the _seven_ who attacked her, and the mere possibility makes Shuhua's blood boil.

Even though she really wants to, she does nothing but be quiet and try to understand what they are talking about, but it becomes very difficult because the dark echo of the library distorts their voices, and Soojin's voice is present in her head when she thinks about crawling closer: _don't take any chances_. So she doesn't do it and stays back there, quiet. But the two guys — the two men, not the two teenage boys — look quite angry, and keep shouting to the point that her ears hurt with the vibration.

Almost half an hour later, when Shuhua realizes that they are not going to leave there anytime soon because they are waiting for something or someone, she tries to think of some way to get out of there, because, if the situation is already bad with only the four of them, she doesn't even want to think about how it would be if more people joined.

Her eyes dart around the dark walls around her and the door through which the men entered, at the front of the room. It is the door that leads to the corridor, the exit most commonly used by students and the fastest. However, it is not the only one. Just behind it, there is a wide metal door, hidden behind the columns and more columns of books, which opens the way to the back of the school, the gym and the football field and the stands.

There is only one problem: the door makes a loud noise when it closes — like, really loud, and there is no way it cannot close because it is automatic. She would have to run and pray to get pass the metal fence of the football field without being seen, or caught, or (worse) shot — besides, there is no way out of the court.

And so, she has a plan, a pretty good one if they're stupid enough to fall for it (they probably are).

Shuhua crawls slowly to the back of the library and carefully lowers the door handle, stretching it as far as possible to gain a few more seconds before running across the thin corridor and hiding behind the first grandstand, getting under a step.

As predicted, they take some time to show up, not only for the seconds it took the door to slam and get their attention, but also because they probably checked both locker rooms before moving on to the court, all four of them, as she wanted, and they, thanks to the presence of Jack, know that there is no way out from where she is, so they wander through the long field of green grass to look for the intruder and Shuhua takes advantage of the distraction to go back where she came from, placing a book between the door and the wall so it doesn't make a noise this time.

She runs as fast as she can to get out of that place, the adrenaline giving her a little extra speed, but she knows that she is already being chased when she hears distant screams behind her, shortly after leaving the school area and getting between the alleys, the place she really knows best in the whole city, and she runs from end to end to get the most out of that illegal madness.

Unfortunately, her efforts are in vain because damn Jack Millington seems to predict that it was she who was spying on them (it was, but it's their fault for coming out of nowhere), and then there are footsteps echoing down the alley too, as well as distant violent threats.

But _again_ , she is not stupid. Shuhua cannot run home when there are armed drug dealers behind her, so she runs towards the Police Center, where she would stay until sunrise, if necessary. Or until someone lends her a cell phone and she can call the emergency number Soojin gave her, just in case something bad happened.

The only thing she forgot is that Fate hates her, which makes her hear footsteps extremely close to her, voices a little further behind, and, overcome with despair, she stumbles and bangs her head, passing out with fear as the shadow approaches her.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope i got your attention dfghidfhjubj 
> 
> remember: stream hwaa and i burn !!!!!
> 
> please leave kudos and/or comments if you can, it helps a lot :)
> 
> (i apologize in case u guys foung any mistakes... english isnt my first language. but lemme know and i'll fix them)
> 
> my twitter is hosieonthejelly, if anyone wants to say hi. i follow back! 
> 
> have a good night! <3


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